


As Intended

by ghostscantdie



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Gen, Squip redemption, probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-01-04 08:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12164817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostscantdie/pseuds/ghostscantdie
Summary: The squip looked at Jeremy, then at it’s hands, then back at Jeremy, clearly as baffled as he was about the whole thing."I'm... I'm back."A pause.“This… wasn’t part of the plan.”





	1. The Squip Enters

**Author's Note:**

> *shows up late to fandom with starbucks*
> 
> Yeah. This is kind of my first fic? I don't really know where it's going to go from here, but if enough people like it I'll probably continue it.
> 
> Enjoy whatever this is, I guess? c:

It started out as a normal Saturday. Get up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, brush teeth––like clockwork. And like every Saturday, of course, Jeremy got up no earlier than 11am, and was ready no later than 12pm, in time to go over to Michael’s house at 1pm. Except, things were a bit different now. It wasn’t always just Jeremy and Michael on the weekends––sometimes (more often than not) it was Jeremy, Michael, Christine, Brooke, Jenna, Rich, Jake, and Chloe, or some combination of those eight.

 

It was peculiar, Jeremy thought, that such a disaster could lead him to have so many new friends––”friends” being a relative term, as Jeremy still wasn’t convinced that the majority of the group hung out together (with him) because they actually liked each other (liked him), but instead hung out together because there was simply no one else to understand what it was they went through.

 

1pm to 5pm, though, was just Jeremy-and-Michael Time. They met up at Michael’s house, busted out the snacks, and played video games in his basement for 4 hours straight. Just what the doctor ordered after a long week of  ~~ hell ~~ school.

 

On this particular Saturday, though, Jeremy didn’t feel quite right. He felt dizzy, and stumbled all the way to the bathroom. The face that greeted him was paler than normal, and he had a pounding headache that dulled his senses to static, as if he wasn’t quite in control of his body anymore, and was simply an outside viewer. Then the feeling was gone, and Jeremy brushed it off as simply the remaining effects of sleep, not daring to consider the alternative.

 

~

 

On his way to Michael’s, he thinks he hears voices. He takes out his earbuds, suddenly wary, glancing around, but there is no one.  _ Paranoia _ , he thinks. Nothing is wrong. He walks a little bit faster after that, though, and is slightly out of breath when he reaches Michael’s house.

 

Michael opens the door before Jeremy can even lift his hand to knock––evidently he had seen Jeremy coming up the driveway.

 

“Jeremy!” He says, arms held out wide to greet his friend. Then he sees Jeremy, panting slightly, and drops them. “Dude, what’s wrong? Did you run here or something? I don’t mind if you’re a bit late, you know, you can take your time.”

 

“It’s… Not that…” Jeremy says in between breaths as he attempts to recover. “I just, uh…”  _ Maybe telling him I’m hearing voices isn’t the best idea… _ “I just really wanted to see you! Can’t wait to play that new game you were telling me about!”

 

Michael looks him over suspiciously for a moment, and Jeremy shifts his feet uncomfortably. Then Michael breaks into a grin. “Well okay then! Come on, this is gonna be hilarious,” he says as he drags Jeremy inside.

 

“Hatoful… Boyfriend?” Jeremy wonders what he’s gotten himself into.

 

“Pfft, yeah, I know, not the kind of thing we usually play, but I thought it would be funny.” Michael sits down on his beanbag holding his laptop on his legs, and gestures Jeremy take the beanbag next to him. “It’s a dating sim where you play as the only human at a school for birds.”

 

“...What,” Jeremy deadpans.

 

“Come ooooon, it’ll be fuuun. Play with meeee,” Michael whines.

 

“Okay, okay.” Jeremy finally concedes and sits down in his beanbag with a slight huff. “I’m sure this will go well.”

 

Michael shushes him and starts the game.

 

~

 

They’re only about halfway through their first runthrough of the game when he hears the voice again––this time, though, Jeremy is sure he didn’t imagine it.

 

**_Wh…whaaa-t?_ **

 

The voice is glitchy, pitched oddly, skips in places, the vowels stretching far longer than they need to, but it’s unmistakably the squip’s voice.

 

Jeremy tries his best not to scream, and succeeds partially, only letting out a high-pitched whine. Michael looks up at him, startled.

 

“Dude? You okay?” Michael asks, concerned.

 

“Yeah, yeah I’m-I’m fine. Just gotta go to the bathroom real quick.”

 

“Oh, okay. Hurry back! We’re starting to get to the good part.”

 

Jeremy all but runs upstairs to the bathroom and slams the door far more aggressively than he meant to. He takes deep breathes. In, 1, 2, 3, 4, hold, 1, 2, 3, 4, out, 1, 2, 3, 4. And repeat. And repeat. Soon he’s calmed down enough to try to think things through rationally.

 

_ Is the squip back, or is my mind playing tricks on me? _ Jeremy thought he was over this. Thought the whole business was done and over with when he stopped having nightmares and stopped cringing at the thought of Mountain Dew. No. He was over it. Which meant–– _ oh _ .

 

Jeremy closes his eyes, chuckling quietly to himself. “I think I’d prefer to be insane,” he says to the empty room. Except, when he opens his eyes, it isn’t empty.

 

“WAAAAUGH!!” Jeremy screams, stumbling backwards and into the tub. “You!” He points an accusatory finger. “You, you should be dead! Gone!” He’s babbling hysterically, looking for anything to wield against the projection, but his hands come up empty.

 

The squip, at first, says nothing. He looks around, bewildered. He looks at Jeremy, then at it’s hands, then back at Jeremy, clearly as baffled as he was about the whole thing.

 

“I’m… I’m back,” he says in utter disbelief. If Jeremy wasn’t so caught up in the  _ why _ and  _ how _ of this situation, he might be shocked to notice that the squip seemed caught off guard, and even confused––an abnormality in a being that could practically see the future.

 

“This… wasn’t part of the plan.”

 

And then Michael bursts into the bathroom.


	2. Now what?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uuuuh, so, it's been more than a year.
> 
> all i really have to say about that is, my bad.
> 
> (but seriously, i can't believe this is still getting kudos?? that's the main reason i finally finished this chapter; i don't really know what i'm doing, but you guys seem to like it, so. thanks.)

“JEREMY!!” Michael yelled, bursting through the bathroom door. “I heard shouting, what’s wrong?”

Jeremy watched in mute horror as the squip turned towards Michael with a calculating gaze, sizing him up.

Michael looked to where Jeremy was staring, and, seeing nothing, assumed the only possible outcome he could. “It’s back, isn’t it,” he said, and Jeremy’s nearly imperceptible nod is all he needed to confirm it.

“It’s okay Jeremy, it’s gonna be okay. Jeremy. Jeremy, look at me.” Michael carefully took Jeremy’s face in his hands and looked him in the eye. “We can fix this. We’ll find more Mountain Dew Red. We’ll travel all over the country if we have to. We can fix this.” He repeated this to assure himself as much as he did to assure Jeremy.

The squip quickly regained its composure from its disoriented awakening and held its hands to pursed lips as if in prayer, glancing between the two, unsure of how to proceed.

Jeremy broke the silence first, shoving Michael’s hands away from his face. “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!” he shouted, slamming his hand in a balled-up fist onto the counter, quivering, possibly in anger, or fear.

Michael and the squip both flinched.

“Jeremy…” Michael breathed. He’d never seen him like this before, displaying an emotion so severely primal.

“Jeremy…” the squip echoed. He closed his eyes and sighed, slow and drawn-out like a balloon losing its air. “I do apologize. I was… unprepared for such a contingency, as unlikely as it was. And yet, here we are.”

“Shut off. SHUT OFF!!” Jeremy yelled, clutching his head.

“As you wish,” the squip grumbled, giving Jeremy a little bow with a roll of his eyes, and faded from existence.

“...oh.” Jeremy said. “I didn’t think that would work.”

“Jeremy..?” Michael asked hesitantly, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Are you okay? Is it gone?”

“I… I don’t know. All it did was apologize and then leave when I told it to…”

“I mean, that’s good news at least, right?? Maybe it was just a glitch that caused to bug out and try and take over the entire school?” Michael asked, desperation in his voice. “Maybe the Mountain Dew Red reset it somehow???”

“I… I want to believe that, but…”

“Yeah…” Michael sighed. “Probably too good to be true, right? I guess as long as it’s mostly listening to you, even if we don’t know what its plan is, we can start looking for a way to deal with it.”

“I can still hear you,” the squip said suddenly, echoing as if in an empty cavern (which, the squip thought to himself, he was, since he was in  _ Jeremy’s _ head).

Jeremy yelped, nearly toppling over the edge of the bathtub.

“What?? What is it? Did it hurt you?” Michael asked frantically.

“No, it--it just said it can ‘still hear us.’”

“Guess it was too much to ask to have a meeting on destroying the squip without the squip listening in, huh?”

“Correct,” the squip replied smugly, despite the fact that Michael had no way of hearing him.

“Um, it said, ‘Correct,’” Jeremy echoed.

Michael rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“Pardon me, Jeremy,” the squip spoke up again. “But as your previous goal has been accomplished, you will need to set a new one.”

“What? What does that mean?” Jeremy asked, confused by this sudden shift in demeanor from the snarky villain he had been expecting to apathetic businessman.

“What is it saying?”

“Um, it said I needed to set a new goal.”

“Don’t do that! Do you remember what it did last time? It didn’t even make you popular, it almost ruined your life!”

“On the contrary,” said the squip. “Hm. Hold on a moment. Jeremy, could you please pull out your phone?”

“Why? What do you want me to do with my phone?” Jeremy asked, suddenly nervous. It was hard to forget how easily the squip had controlled him before.

“I wish to speak with Michael. He won’t be able to hear me as well if your phone is in your pocket,” the squip said, rolling his eyes as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“What are you gonna do, call it?”

The squip sighed. “Essentially.” Michael jumped when he suddenly heard a voice from Jeremy’s phone, and Jeremy looked down in surprise.

“Huh. That’s. New,” Jeremy said, even more worried than before. He could feel the sweat starting to bead on his face and neck.

The smugness in the squip’s voice was clear even through the tinny sound of the speaker.  _ “What? I can envision probable futures through quantum physics and you’re surprised I can connect to the internet?” _

“It can  _ what _ !?” Michael shrieked. “Dude! How did this not set off any red flags!!”

Jeremy just shrugged helplessly. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

_ “Getting back to the topic at hand… I did not fail. Jeremy has exactly everything he asked for… he’s in with the popular kids, has gotten a date with Christine, and has, along the way, learned to be more chill. Everything he asked me to provide for him, I did.” _ The squip says this with such conviction Michael almost believes it. But…

“You didn’t do any of that! Jeremy did it all on his own,  _ without _ you. Face it. You  _ failed. _ ”

Jeremy sucked in a sharp intake of breath as the squip manifested itself behind Michael, towering over him, reaching out as if to grab him. He looked furious, and Jeremy was terrified, even if he knew the squip couldn’t touch Michael.

But Michael must have noticed the look on his face. “What?”

“Please don’t antagonize him,” Jeremy said, softly.

And just like that the squip was gone. He heard it speak from the phone again, it’s voice tense.  _ “I did not fail. I’m not like you humans; I simply realized that the best possible outcome, the path most likely to allow Jeremy to achieve his goal, ended with me out of the picture.” _

“What, so I’m supposed to believe you ‘sacrificed yourself’ just so Jeremy could get a date with a girl?”

_ “Yes. Because that is what happened.” _

Michael let out a low whistle. “‘By any means,’ huh?”

_ “Correct.” _

Jeremy felt lost. “What? What do you mean?”

Michael sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m guessing it’s part of their programming. ‘Achieve the set goal by any means necessary.’ Guess the creators didn’t think that one through.”

_ “I take offense to that. But--” _

“Good,” Michael interrupted.

The squip huffed in annoyance, but continued.  _ “But there are more particulars and caveats than that. That is the basic principle, however.” _

“Alright. Great. So what?” Jeremy asked, tired of these half-answers dancing around the issue. “What do you want from me?”

_ “I only wish to see you succeed. And to see you set a new goal, so I may help you do so.” _

“No.”

_ “...No?” _

“I don’t want you to do anything to help me. You’ve done enough of that.”

_ “What am I supposed to do, then?” _

“I don’t know! Just leave me alone!”

_ “I suppose that will suffice for now.” _ A click and the phone went silent.

“I don’t know what I was expecting to happen, but I don’t think it was that,” said Jeremy.

“You’re telling me,” Michael said, running his hand through his hair. “Where are we supposed to go from here?”

“Video games?”

Michael laughed softly, sounding defeated, his face in his hands. “I guess that’s as good a plan as any, for now. First chance I get, tomorrow, though, I’m going down to Spencer’s to see if my hookup has any Mountain Dew Red left.”

“I think it’s fine for now, as long as I don’t give it a goal to reach towards, it doesn’t have any reason to take over the school…”

“Except as revenge.”

“Yeah. But I mean, it’s a computer, right? It shouldn’t have feelings.”

“I dunno, it acts like it has feelings. I guess that could be a design choice to make the user more comfortable but…”

“But what?”

“...I’m wondering if maybe they took it too far.” Michael sighed again. “Well, let’s not worry about it for now. Where were we?”

“You were trying to seduce a bird.”

“Right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i dunno about you guys, but playing video games and pretending they don’t exist is how i deal with most of my problems
> 
>  
> 
> i have a tumblr!  
> ghostscantdie.tumblr.com
> 
> come bother me there so i don't forget to update for an entire year again;;


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